Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers Review

A delightful and endearing indie game with an eye-catching gameplay hook.

Great game design teams can take a well-tread genre and throw in a change to make it feel new all over again. Portal exemplifies this, taking first-person shooter mechanics and tossing in brilliant and inventive elements from puzzle and platformer titles to make it about using your brain, rather than spilling those of your enemies. In the same vein we have the quirky indie-developed Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers. While its challenge level and narrative are uneven, Tiny and Big nonetheless brings a unique twist to its platforming that, when paired with its fantastic aesthetic and personality, creates an endearing and delightful little experience.

Tiny and Big is the story of the two titular characters. You play as Tiny, a bookish little guy with a penchant for science, using your wits to overcome obstacles in your quest to find Big and recover your inheritance – a pair of underpants. Big’s a jerk, though, and will do everything in his power to slow you down, constantly running away and using his underpants-conferred magical powers to throw gigantic chunks of the world or levitate himself to the higher ground.

Not to be outdone by magic, Tiny’s got a few tools in his arsenal that make him deft at reaching the unreachable. If Tiny encounters a sheer wall he has no chance of jumping up, he can pull out his raygun and slice the world apart. With a few clicks of the mouse you can dynamically cut apart rocks and structures, shaving a column into a set of stairs that you can easily hop up. With your raygun it’s easy to cut up the world, then deploy a rocket booster, use your arms or a grappling hook to push and pull the stone into a configuration that allows you to progress.

At its most basic level, Tiny’s quest really boils down to a few environments you have to scale, but it manages to stay fun because each step is a little sandbox that lets you use your imagination to succeed. You could walk up to a wall and slice it into tiny chunks if you wanted, or you could just as easy do a gigantic slice that allows you to bring the whole wall down in one swoop. Sometimes I would cut stairs out of the world, still other times I might attach a rocket booster to a felled piece of stone, jump on top of it and then ride across a chasm. I died a whole heck of a lot, but forgiving checkpoints didn’t make it too much of a headache. Even when I did die, it usually was the result of hilariously poor planning, with a piece of a rock or wall coming down and crushing me.

It only takes a few hours to get through the entirety of Tiny and Big, but in this case that’s a good thing. Tiny and Big’s slicing mechanism entrances, but since you immediately have access to all the gameplay mechanics from the start, it’d grow wearisome if it went on much longer. The occasional boss battle might force you to be a bit faster with your cuts, but Tiny and Big doesn’t introduce anything new or tweak the formula throughout the story. In many ways it kind of feels like a really long tech demo with incredible aesthetics.

Really, it’s hard not to talk about Tiny and Big without spending time on its looks and music. The most valuable collectibles in each stage are cassette tapes that unlock phenomenal – and often bizarre – indie rock tracks. With so little done as far as the character’s voices -- they’re mostly composed of single sounds and grunts-- it’s nice to have fun and beautiful melodies accompanying your journey. The music feels right for the scenery, too. The look of Tiny and Big feels like someone took the cartoon Adventure Time and put it into the Borderlands engine. Along with its quirkily drawn characters, there’s just so much character in everything you see. Even the game’s menus are fun, and keep in step with the whimsical feeling of the story.

Like I said, Tiny and Big’s length is just about right for what’s included, but I’d really like to see the team at Black Pants Game Studio do more with their ingenious slicing mechanic and story. Some parts of Tiny and Big made me feel like I had to think to overcome them, but other parts felt a bit repetitive or so obvious that I wondered why the studio even bothered to put it in the game (cut a very conspicuously placed column to get across a gap? I’ve done this before…). Likewise I’d love it if the story went deeper. The funny in-game cut-scenes really show that the team has a knack for humor and making lovable characters, but in between all you have is the music to listen to. Games like this, where you spend so much time alone, need more witty banter between a companion and backstory to make the world interesting.

The Verdict

At $10, Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers is a worthwhile investment for anyone looking for a fun distraction. It’s the right length to keep from feeling too repetitive, though I’d still have enjoyed it a lot more if the types of tasks I had to do had evolved in ways beyond cut, push, pull, repeat, or if the story had been more heavily implemented.

I adore the menus in Tiny and Big; they just ooze personality. The story could be deeper, though, and more integrated throughout the few hours of the campaign.

7.5

Graphics

It’s far from the best looking game out there, and it repeats a lot of textures and parts of the environment, but it has a distinct look that sets it apart and adds character to the world.

8.5

Sound

The voice-acting is super sparse, but the lovely music really sets the tone and makes the whole experience a lot better.

7.5

Gameplay

The slicing mechanic is a joy to use at first, setting you free in a world and challenging your creativity. It’d be nice if they did more with it as the game progressed, though.

6.5

Lasting Appeal

You can replay levels to find a number of collectibles, and you’ll likely never do any portion exactly the same way, but it’s not narratively interesting enough to make me want to dive back in right away.